Winning Pursuit ✔

|| 5: In The Vicinity

Bhumika

The sky above was a blanket of thick, grey clouds, the kind that seemed to swallow the last bit of light from the day. The evening air felt heavy, damp with the promise of rain that hadn't yet fallen. Bhumika slipped her phone back into her pocket after hanging up with Daksh, her jaw tight with concern. She took a steadying breath as she entered the meeting room where Inspector Bhasin was waiting for her, files and papers scattered across the table.

"Everything alright?" Bhasin asked, looking up from the stack of reports in front of him.

"Yeah," Bhumika replied, her voice controlled. "Just had to handle something quick. What do we have on the drug dealer lead?"

Bhasin gestured toward the files. "New intel just came in. Our suspect's movements have gotten more erratic. Sources say he's been trying to launder cash, and there's a possibility he's working with a new group. We're tracking down their vehicles, but it's messy."

Bhumika sat down across from him, her mind still partly on the MPV that had been following Daksh. She pushed it aside for now, focusing on the task at hand. "Anything concrete?"

"Not yet," Bhasin replied, flipping through the papers. "But we're watching a few locations we believe they've been using for drop-offs. We'll be sending out teams tonight. I want you on patrol, keep your eyes open for anything unusual. These guys aren't taking any chances, and neither should we."

Bhumika nodded, her mind sharp and prepared to go on a patrol for the night with a constable. She drove through the quiet streets, her windshield wipers swiping lazily at the mist that had settled over the city.

She had always liked evenings like this—when the world felt muted, as if everything had slowed down for just a moment. But tonight, the clouds overhead seemed to carry a weight, a tension that made her restless.

The radio crackled in the background, dispatch calling in routine updates. One of it, was a call in her vicinity.

"Hit-and-run reported on Malabar Road," the dispatcher's voice called out. "Victim severely injured, possible fatality. Suspect vehicle fled the scene."

Bhumika's pulse quickened as she immediately turned the car toward the location, sirens blaring into the night. She arrived at the scene within minutes, her headlights illuminating the chaos ahead—bystanders gathered around, a mangled bike lying in the street, and paramedics tending to a bloodied figure on the ground.

She stepped out of the car, her hand resting on her holster as she surveyed the area. Her mind raced through protocol, but a sinking feeling in her gut told her this wasn't just a random accident.

Danger, Bhumika sensed, was lurking in the city. Cloaked in the dark of the night, hidden and calculating its next attack. The victim whose identity she would soon find out will lead to much more details to the hit-and-run case. For now, she settled on fetching details for the paper work and see to it, the victim was getting the necessary treatment.

*-*-*-*-*

It was a rather cold morning, storm of the previous night carried forward. It gave the city a greyish filter with a little stokes of ray. Bhumika stepped out of the station, rolling her shoulders and letting out a quiet sigh as the crisp morning air hit her face. After a gruelling morning of paperwork from the hit-and-run case, she was finally ready to end her shift. The sun was just beginning to burn through the lingering mist, and for a moment, she savoured the thought of a few hours of peace.

That was until she spotted a now-familiar car parked by the curb, idling as if it had been waiting for her. A sleek, black sedan—Daksh's. Her eyebrow arched as she noticed him sitting casually behind the wheel, sunglasses perched on his nose, arm draped over the steering wheel like he had all the time in the world.